Ornamental leather-work.



No. 788,092. PATENTED APR. 25, 1905. E. B. BURTON.

ORNAMENTAL LEATHER WORK.

APPLICATION FILED DEC. 13. 1900.

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Patented April 25, 1905.

UNTTED STATES PATENT EFicE.

ELIZABETH E. BURTON, OF SANTA BARBARA, CALIFORNIA.

ORNAMENTAL LEATHER-WORK.

SPECIFICATION forming part Of Letters Patent NO. 788,092, dated April 25, 1905.

Application filed December 13, 1900. Serial No. 39,684.

To (17/ who/11' it may concern.-

Be it known that 1, ELIZABETH E. BURTON, a citizen of the United States, and a resident of Santa Barbara, in the county of Santa Barbara and State of California, have invented a certain new and useful Improvement in Ornamental Leatherork, of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates to ornamental leatherwork suitable for panels, p1ctureframes, or m other situations where it is desired to furnish a decorated surface.

The object of my invention is to furnish in leather a decorated surface of greater beauty and higher artistic effects than has hitherto been secured.

Heretofore it has been proposed to ornament flat leather surfaces by burning, but in this case the quality of the effects has been much limited by the necessity of using a surface of only a single color. It has also been proposed to apply pieces of leather differently colored and of different forms to larger pieces forming a background by pasting and stitching. According to my present invention I propose to greatly increase the range of the art and the beauty of the effect or results by burning the raw edge of the applied pieces themselves and also burning the surface of the background around the edge.

My invention consists, further, in an improved method of producing shades of color and gradations and combinations of shades upon a leather surface of a light hue, preferably a white surface, and in the new article of ornamental leather-work colored by such a 3 This part of my invention consists, j

process.

substantially, in burning the leather surface from any that can be produced either by wash colors alone or by the burning alone.

Another part of my invention consists in producing the effect of low relief in ornamental leather-work upon a leather background by arranging the pieces of leather constituting the design so that they shall be superposed upon one another and overlap in part only, said pieces being properly fastened down at their edges upon one another and upon the background.

In carrying out my invention the design which is to be applied to the leather backing or surface is carefully made by cutting it out of a piece or pieces of leather, and it is then applied with strong glue to the backgroundsurface. The design so applied may be any ornamental figure or representation, conventional or otherwise, of flowers, flower-stems, arabesque ligu res, or any desired ornamental shape. The manner of attachment of the design to the-backing form no special part of my invention. The applied pieces may 0bviously be made of leather of any color and of a harmonious or contrasting color with the background-pieces, which may also be suitably colored. in producing highly-colored effects upon the surface of the applied pieces l prefer to use a white leather, preferably calfskin. The applied parts or pieces are made, if desired, to overlap upon one another, so that a part of the surface of one shall be seen beyond the edge of the other, this being the preferred mannerof applying the leather in the representation of flowers or in other cases where it is desired to give an enhanced effect of relief. After the leather pieces have been applied they may be outlined by burning with red-hot tools, such as are ordinarily employed in the decoration of leather by burning. To secure the best effects, especially of relief, it is desirable to make the burned line upon the surface of the background close to the edge of the applied ligu re and also to burn the exposed or cut edge of the applied pieces, particularly if the said pieces be rather thick. By thus burning the edge the effect of relief may be better brought out.

The shading of the background piece of leather may also be put in in the same manner by burning with a red-hot tool. Where the surface of the applied pieces is to be highly colored to produce the best effect, the surface is shaded by the use of the burning-tool, and the wash color is then washed over such surface, thereby producing on said surface the gradations in the tone of said color, ranging in depth and intensity, according to the depth of the burning. This wash color or dye may be an anilin dye or color; but I do not limit myself in respect to the particular color medium employed. The color efi'ects thus produced are quite different from those to be obtained by the application of color by means of a brush, and, moreover, the same effect that would be obtained by brush-shading with a color may be much more readily obtained by the procedure above described than by the ordinary method.

The effects produced by my improved method differ from those obtained by ordinary brushshading and will be found to be characteristic of the process itself in the finished ornamental Work. They are superior to them in depth and quality of tone effects.

The accompanying drawing shows in plan and section roughly a representation of the ornamental leather-work embodying my invention.

The figure shown is a part of a flower the leaves of which are made from pieces of leather overlapping upon one another, so that the surface of one shall appear beyond the edges 4 of the other or others. The center of the flower (indicated at 5) appears beyond the edge of the leaves which lap over the central piece constituting the flower center. The stem of flower (indicated at 6) is of any proper piece of contrasting leather contrasting with the background. The background 7 may be of any desired color and ornamented with a surface shading produced by burning at 9, as the fancy of the artist may dictate. Around the edge of the flower-leaves or other portions of the design, as indicated at 10, is a dark outline produced by the burning-tool upon the surface of the background, and, as already stated, the edge of the superposed ornament or design may also be burned to enhance the effect of relief. The pieces of leather constituting the leaves of the flower are preferably white, being made of white calfskin, and said surfaces are provided with shading, as indicated at the points 12, produced by the burning-tool, and the color effect, which cannot be seen in the drawing as it is in black and White, is produced by simply washing over the burned white surface with the wash color, in the manner already described. In

some cases it may be preferred to omit the coloring of the surface by a wash color and to depend upon the contrasting color of the applied pieces of leather together with the shading of its surface for the desired efiect.

It will be readily understood that the applied parts may be secured or fastened to the background by stitching, which may be done at any desired stage of the manufacture, and that the background-shading around the design may be put in either before or after the stitching.

hat I claim as my invention is l. Ornamental or decorative leather-Work comprising a leather backing or background having applied pieces of leather arranged to form any suitable design, the component parts of said design comprising pieces of leather superposed as described, so that a partof the surface of one shall be seen beyond the edge of another, said pieces being fastened down at their edges upon the background and the edge of the superposed piece being fastened down upon the piece beneath, all in the manner described to give an enhanced effect of relief.

2. Ornamental or decorative leather-Work comprising a leather backing and applied pieces of leather of suitable form according to the selected design said pieces being out lined by a burned line upon the surface of the background and also having its edges charred or burned.

3. In ornamental or decorative leatherwork, an ornamental leather surface shaded by burning and colored with a wash color applied over the burned surface as described.

4:. ln ornamental or decorative leatherwork, a suitable leather backing having a leather ornament or design of a light shade applied to the surface thereof and burned and colored with a wash color applied over the burned surface as and for the purpose described.

5. The herein -described improvement in producing different shades of color upon a leather surface consisting in shading the same by burning or charring according to the varying depths of color desired and then applying a wash color to the burned or charred surface.

6. The herein -described improvement in producing ornamental colored effects upon the surface of leather consisting in the burning or charring of the same according to the depth or intensity of the color required and then applying a wash color to the burned portions of the surface.

Signed at New York city, in the county of New York and State of New York, this 11th day of December, A. D. 1900.

ELIZABETH E. BURTON.

Witnesses:

GEO. E. (JRUsE, E. L. LAWLER. 

